911 back on stream in two weeks, Ramjattan says

-Cops to get new equipment from China

The 911 emergency system will be back in operation in two weeks’ time, according to Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, who has also announced that a large quantity of vehicles and other equipment necessary for law enforcement to respond arrived here recently from China.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Ramjattan informed that the service will be cleared for operation in another two weeks. The training, he said, is complete and so “when people now make a report, they are going to get answers and we are gonna have the assets by that time too to respond. Our respond time in and around Georgetown we want it to be in minutes, and with all that hardware that is coming in you certainly will have a Christmas that is gonna be better than previous years”.

Last December, during the consideration of the budget estimates, he had expressed confidence that this exercise would have been completed by the end of January this year. However, he said on Thursday that rooms have been prepared and that training has commenced. He said that Digicel has already procured the equipment and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) is installing a fibre optic cable.

In March of this year, Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced that Cabinet had given its no objection to the award of a $27.9 million contract to Digicel for the provision of a 911 business solution emergency service system for the Ministry of Public Security.

Months earlier, the Private Sector Commission and acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine had expressed concern over the quality of the 911 service being provided by GTT.

There have been numerous issues with the 911 system over the years. Persons attempting to utilize the service had complained that their calls went unanswered.

Meanwhile, Ramjattan also announced that 30 containers are presently on the wharf and will be cleared in the coming days. He said that the containers which are a gift from the Government of China, are holding All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), trucks, computers and other vital law enforcement items.

“I asked from the very beginning of my stewardship…we need(ed) some assets,” he said, while adding that he has been pleading for assistance for law enforcement equipment and some countries have responded positively.